Time flies pt 2

I don't think I have as much to say(at least not about September) so hopefully I won't poop out halfway through like I did before.

August
Our second break as PC/Ed vols. Not as jammed pack with PC related activities like the first break(April), allowing us more time to relax/travel/simply have fun-I would like to think I did a little of all 3:)
The 1st week of the month was spent with my students(4) in class 8. The 3 girls of class 8 were selected to attend Camp GLOW the following week so we decided to hold them at school rather than allowing them to go home and risking the chance of them not coming back for the camp. The lone boy of class 8 was forced to stay with the girls for a majority of the week to complete more practice exams, as you can imagine he was NOT happy about that. It was fun to be with them for the week. We laughed a lot, shared many stories, watched Harry Potter, and really just tried our best to make the most out of an otherwise boring week.

I enjoyed being in a much more relaxed setting with my kids-only a few teachers remained which meant I could teach when I wanted and as much as I wanted with very little distractions and I could just soak up the time with my kids. I get all sentimental when I start thinking that in just over a month they will be taking their exams and packing up for secondary school. We will not have anymore 'prep time' laughs or funny story times when we should be studying. They will not be around next year to give me a hard time about wearing a little ribbon I got from camp around my ankle or other silly American things that make me stand out. I always thought I would make relationships with people in my community and school but I never knew just how much the thought of saying goodbye would pull on my heart. And the Crazy thing is this isn't even the end of my service, I mean at least I will still be in the same country and possibly able to see them before I leave. Next year when it's truly time to say goodbye I will be a wreck, no doubt about it. Ok enough of that talk.
After saying goodbye to our boy, the girls and I had a few more days before we were off to Kisumu for camp. During these days we watched more movies, did hair(yup I played salon with my kids and put a perm in one of my fellow teacher's hair) which if you know me you know that I know NOTHING about hair,makeup, beauty or fashion so for anyone to trust me to put chemicals in their hair has lost their mind. We also cooked together which was super fun. The girls were pretty bummed about not going home when everyone else went because staying at school meant continuing to eat the same darn thing(maize and beans "githeri" for lunch  and grind maize "ugali" with kale "sukuma wiki" for dinner) for another week while going home meant delicious food such as Chapati. So how can I make the girls happy? Make chapati at school-I know, I know I'm a genius.

 We bought the flour for the chapati along with rice to go with the makeshift stew that we made from the canned meat donated from some relief food org and left over cabbage that is usually used for teacher's lunches. It was a pretty delicious feast if I say so myself. It was just nice to give the cooking staff(one man-Steven and one woman-Dinna) a break. They work so hard, coming in at 4am to prepare porridge and staying until 6:45pm(when they are done serving supper) everyday. The hours obviously suck but the conditions makes me feel bad for them, smoky kitchen along with a crazy workload of chopping wood(I tried this for 30mins- OMG its hard!) to keep the fire going all day, washing dishes(at least 100+ plates and cups every meal), serving the food they cook and serving the teachers lunch as well as tea for chai break at 11 and 4. Truly overworked and underpaid but always a smile on their face which makes me realize I have NOTHING to complain about. I love them, honestly there are  somedays it's their friendly nature or willingness to teach the silly mzungu a lilttle kiswahili in the midst of all their work that keeps me going. Ok back to Aug...

We went to Camp GLOW(Girls Leading Our World). This camp is put together by one of the 3 groups of PC/Kenya-GAD(Gender and Development). Camp GLOW  host about 60 girls, 2 hearing groups of 20 and one Deaf group of a little less than 20 because a few didn't make it. There are 2 GLOW camps one for the eastern(in April) and one for western Kenya. Girls come from my province(Rift Valley) along with Western, Nganza(pretty sure that's spelled wrong) for the August camp. The camp runs from Sun-Sat. The days are spent in lesson about HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, rape, communication, hygiene  esteem, body,careers, etc. Most of the Deaf Ed PCVs are in primary schools so our girls were being exposed to so many new things. These topics were also pretty new to my teaching. I've have been signing for less than a year so trying to think of the best way to talk about rape or hiv transmission or preparing a timeline for your life in sign language in a rather simple way that even the younger girls can understand was not an easy task to say the least.

 It was so interesting to see their faces and listen to their questions and comments during certain topics. I took 3 girls 2 of them physically disabled to go along with their deafness. I felt like these girls were much more vulnerable than the others so Camp GLOW was a must. It was amazing to watch them grow over the week. They became more comfortable with speaking out in touchy topics, you could tell they were really learning a thing or 2.

Camp GLOW was more than just classes. For many of the girls this was their first time outside of their school/village and in Kisumu. They were meeting all new girls and for many of the hearing girls it was their 1st time being exposed to the deaf community which was a very good experience for them. During the afternoons the students had fun activities like sports day, career fairs, reusable sanitary pad making,  IGA(income generating activities) of which they learned how to make bracelets, popcorn and fruit bowls that can be sold in the village.  During the evenings we had a bonfire(I chose to do that one because it reminds me of real camp:), movie night, craft night(I learned to knit haha you would think that I was a camper at this camp), and my favorite talent show night.  The last day they got to go on a field trip. Our girls went to the deaf VCT(Voulntary Counseling and Testing) to learn about the process of HIV/AIDS testing(positive is not good and all that jazz) and then we went to the Impala Sanctuary(there were other animals there too) as a large group. As you can tell this week was jammed pack with events so it was exhausting but def fun.The best part of all of it was when we came back to school this term. I watched my girls talk to the others about Kisumu, all the things they learned, people they saw in different careers, delicious food they ate(haha I was pretty happy about this part too) and animals they saw. The smiles on their faces as they told the stories along with the big eyes of the other girls as they watched/listened-priceless.

Immediately following GLOW I went to Tanzania for a few days to see PCV and good friend Tanique Carter. It was fun to see another part of Africa. Kenya and Tanzania are bordering countries but vastly different. For starters Kenya's official language is English which means most people know it whereas Tanzania speaks very little English even in bigger cities. Let's just say I was very thankful and impressed with Tanique's language skills that got me through the week. It was also interesting to see the different landscape. In the rift valley I would say it's green 75% of the year(dry season can be a little rough) which means tons of fruits and veggies but this wasn't really the case in the area of Tanzania I was in. All in all Tanzania was great. It was great to see Tanique, sleep and eat in a fancy hotel and just be on vacation after what seemed like forever.

Following Tanazania I went to visit PCV Jenny Black for a bit at her place. I decided I didn't want to be lonely/bored so we spent the week cooking and watching movies. I was a bum. It was great. That about sums up August. School was scheduled to start on Sept 3rd but little did we know this would NOT be the case but I'll save that for the next blog because once again this is much longer than I expected. So yeah pt 3-September and October coming soon. Man I have much more to say than I thought...go figure!